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Weekly Howl 27-01-12

A small portion of despair and enlightenment delivered to your inbox every Friday 27 January 2012 ~

We'd just like to add to the calls for calm ahead of a potentially explosive weekend. As you'll be aware, there is a huge fixture in the Amateur Football Combination Division 1 South, where the National Westminster Bank are playing the Royal Bank of Scotland second team. Let's hope the win bonuses are kept within reasonable bounds.

--- Badge of the week ~ Deportes Antofagasta, Chile

Chile is an unpredictable place, epitomised by the desert city of Antofagasta ("Anto" is Spanish for opposite, as in "opposite to that which might reasonably be expected", while "fagasta" can be loosely translated as "Reeeeaaaally?"). The club's crest refers to the constant state of alert that locals are in when disposing of domestic refuse and recycling because it is not unknown for residents and council employees to be surprised by a white panther rearing up at them from inside wheelie-bins. Grown to excessive size by feasting on human detritus, these scavenging behemoths were responsible for the phenomenon of "mob recycling", in which armed parties of up to 20 or 30 neighbours separated their glass, paper and card accompanied by a priest and a doctor. Deportes Antofagasta have used this terrifying image in order to suggest Dormant Menace, which, coincidentally, is pretty much Andy Carroll's role in the current Liverpool side. Cameron Carter

---from Eddie Hutchinson"Unless it's my hearing, not only is Gary Lineker needlessly tetchy in the MOTD clip featured in last week's Howl, it shows he needs the autocue to remember the name of a commentator he announces week after week. Who's Colin McNagarra?" him?

---The court artist working on the Harry Redknapp case warmed up with a quick sketch of Michael Caine with his mouth full. Meanwhile, the Metro's front-page headline is a little misleading.

---The Ghana squad warmed up for their opening match at the Africa Cup of Nations with a singsong. Might this inspire Steven Gerrard to lead England in a Phil Collins medley at Euro 2012?

---Getting shirtyNotable kits of yesteryear

Nottingham Forest away, 1993-95

Forest have struggled to settle with their away shirt designs for years now. In the heyday of League and European championships it was a fetching yellow and in the 1980s they tended towards white shirts, although the black shorts gave them a worrying similarity to near neighbours Derby.

With the Clough era over in 1993, however, they plumped for something different – a combination of blue shirts and aquamarine shorts. Initial reaction was a little surprised but quite impressed and with Stan Colllymore regularly pulling it on to tear up defences there were plenty of takers ready to imitate him in the stands. Maybe success on the pitch helped to establish it as a popular kit in the minds of fans and when one reflects on the shirt the memories come flooding back as well. Who could forget a resplendent Collymore firing Forest back to the Premier League in the 1993-94 season or sinking Manchester United at Old Trafford the following year?

Personally, I've always liked Forest in a yellow away kit, reminiscent of past glories, but when the club went all Brazilian on us in 2005-06 the sights of Gino Padula and Eugene Dadi struggling to a seventh-place finish in League One failed to capture the imagination in quite the same way. Stephen Wright